Means for utilizing the water power of certain streams



Sept. 14 1926. I J. BURNS MEANS FOR UTILIZING THE WATER POWER OF CERTAIN STREAMS Filed Jan. 26, 1925 2 Shets-Shet 1 IN VEN TOR.

ATTORNEY Sept. 14 192 6. 1,600,163

, J. BURNS MEANS'FOR UTILIZING THE WATER POWER OF CERTAIN 'STREAMS Filed Jan. 26, 1925 2 sheebs-Sheet 2 Fig. 2

muuunu Fig.3

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Sept. 14, 1926.

UNITED STATES JOSEPH BURNS, OF LINCOLN, NEBRASKA.

- MEANS FOR UTILIZING THE WATER POWER OF CERTAIN STREAMS.

Application filed January 26, 1925- Serial No. 4,824.

This a plication is filed as a continuation in part 0 my prior application Serial Number 728,922, filed July 29, 1924, for means for and a method of utilizing the water power of certain streams.

The Platte is the largest of the rivers having certain characteristics whch are common to many of the streams of the Middle West. 'It has great width compared with extreme shallowness, having been described as a mile wide and an inch deep. The visible supply of water appears low, butat certain seasons it has a current movement of thirteen miles per hour, with a fall of eight feet to the mile.

The subsoil is sand and gravel which has been worn smooth and almost globular through constant rollingdown stream. It

extends to an average depth of about one hundred feet, and to a width of about twenty miles on each side of the river, making a total width ofabout forty miles. This immense body of sand and gravel is saturated with water, and the combined I water and sand have a distinct and constant current. Thus the visible water supply, although itself great, is merely an insignificant fraction, of the total quantity of water.

The possibility of utilizing this water power has for many years. tempted engineers, but for reasons which will be explained in the following description the problems connected with the harnessing of such streams have, heretofore, been insoluble. Briefly, the object of my invention is to provide means and a method for utilizing some of this water power at a minimum.

' cost of construction and at a minimum cost I of operation.

Referring now to my drawings: Figure'l isa birds eye view of a portion of the stream, showing also the catch basin and canal which I construct for carrying I out my invention.

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the seepage basin, showingthe relation of the basin to the stream and to the power canal, and showing also additional means for providing horizontal seepage.

.Figure 3 is a cross section of a portion of a valley with a river bed and a catch basin.

In carrying out my invention I construct a catch basin l0 and a ower canal l1 paral leling the river 12 and in some cases I add the "pumping Int 13 with a transmission line 14 from t e power house to the pumping plant. All of these may be located on either side of the river, but such rivers are usually characterized by the fact that they have distinct bluffs or hills on one side and an exceedingly gentle slope on theother,

which very often determines the most desirable location, since certain 'features of the catch basin and power canal and their relatron to each other are important.

The catch basin may be constructed in any desirable dimensions, but I- prefer to make it about three -hundred feet wide and one or two or more miles long, and to so locate it that it will have about the same slope as that of the river bed. This basin is made in the sand and gravel subsoil by excavation and by forming dikes on either or both sides with the excavated material. .I find that for this purpose the sand pump'furnishes the means for uickly. and cheaply excavating the basin. The depth may vary, the most desirable depth beingv probably somewhere near ten feet. The dikes maybe reinforced by means of a growth of willow saplings or by any other desired means'to prevent and to arrest erosion-by the'river during high Water. Willows naturally grow in such localities and if iven time they will seed themselves, but the establishment of the willows may be hastened by planting saplings or cuttings in the dikes.

only, and never directly from the visible stream- This seepage may be in a vertical direction from the underflow alone or it To-prevent this I. apply a may be also'in a horizontal direction from either or both the underfiow and-the visible stream. To facilitate the horizontal seepageI provide seepage channels 10 'as shown in Figure 2. At. the time of formation of the seepage basin 10 the channels 10- are cut, connecting the basin with the stream, and thesechannels are then filled with a good seepage material like coarse sander gravel.

' The power canal has its head at or near the foot of the catch basin, the level being somewhat aboi'e that of the bottom-of the grade to any desirable distance to a; -}50W.er

basin as fast 'as it is taken out,. and that it line 14. 3o;

. In come cases, however, it' -is desirable to and for this reason" I have catch basin. The power canal has less'wa'ter than that er the catch basin and it 1m? in 'a' clayey soil through which the water cannot readily seep. The flow of water in the catch basin thus forcesthe water info the-powercanal, where it is carried down house." a I a. v It will readily be apparent that the water in the gravel subsoil will-rise into the catch add a pumping equipmentforlifting all or a portion of the waterinto the power canal, rovided the pumping plant 13 with th "transmission The seepage inithe large bed of gravel paralleling and underlying. the river is so great that He tjvelve inch pipe is inserted in-any position thereoi'z, it will supply a thousand gallons of water. a minute. In one instance, a pit sixteen feet square was sunk ten feet below the surface'of' the water 'It would level,and it"was found that this pit could supply sixteen thousand gallons of water per minute. I

be impossible to conduct the I water directly from the river into the power "-canal.- The waterin rivers of this'typeis usually i very turbulent and carries drift as well as sand and gravel in suspension with the result that the canal would soon be choked with sand. on the other hand,

the water in the catch-basin is relatively quiescent and it contains no'drift. At the season of the ear when ice is-breaking up the river is 0 en chokedby chunks of ice, but the ice in the catch b win would not disturb the flow of water in .the power canal, as the ice of 'th'eqiver would were the water- Qledf directly from the river into. the catch basin. {Whenf the basin is one mile 'ldng,

three hundred feet wide and vten feet deep the takingout-of 4500 cubic feet of water per second willproduce a current .inthe. catchbasin of 0111 one and one-half I feet per second. At. this slow rate of movement the fsandand'gravel will not" be churned, but will remain at the bottom of the basin" where they cannot enter the power canal. As before stated, the flow of the water from thecatch basinto the power canal is a gravity flow, Where tnetopographic conditions are such that/this arrangement is impossible the pumping equipment must be utilized. Even in extreme cases, however,

the'lift is very slight compared with the results accomplished. I find that the lift of 4500 cubic feetof water per second to a tity of water will generate 58500 P.

height of one and a half feet requires 100 0 Y H. P. With ahead of 145 feet this *quan- 7 VVith the 1000 H. P. deducted from this for 57500 HQP. from this one plant alone."

pumping purposes there isa'net gain of It is my purpose to install power developmentplants of the kind described in streams having the characteristics of the Platte. In Nebraska alone the Platte, Niobrara, Republican, and the Loup Rivers would furnish at least two thousand miles of water power which is now going to waste; 7

No method has heretofore-been devised for successfully coping with this problem;

for adam, except at prohibitive cost. The

dam would be subject to enormous pressure 1 from upstream, not only from the water current but from the current of flowing sand and gravel. Even. though the dam were sunk-to a rock or clay foundation, the water would still flow around the dam through the gravel bed Withoutappreciably raising the waterdevel. This difliculty could be overcome with adam only by extending the dam entirely across the gravel bed and to. its bottom. To be effective such a dam must be about forty miles long and a hundred or more ieet deep, and its cost would be out of proportion to the power developed. Such a dam, or any other dam must be reinforced against the pressure of the water current and. against the gravel drift and against the flowing ice and other river drift. Moreover, the dam'would be ineffective since the gravel and sand drift would enterthe power canal and completely choke it.

My system diii'ers radically in several re-f It is true that my power canal is to av degree analogous. to a millrace, but whereas the. millrace taps the spects from prior systems.

current of the stream, mypower canal obtains its water from the catch, basin which The great depth of; the sand and gravel makes' it impossible to find secure footing also has no direct connection with the stream.

The catch basin obtains the water by seep-' age from the underflow. Despite the fact that enormous quantitiesofgwater are thus obtained there areno strong, currents because the seepage area is relatively large. This and thefact that the down stream current has a low rate of movement does away with all agitation of the water which would bringv the troublesome sand and gravel to the surface. Furthermore the seep'age from the un.

derflow has a more constant temperature than that of the surface water and this com;

I the freezing of the water in the basin except bined with the fact that the seepage movement is coextensive with the basin prevents in importance. In nearly all localities having streams .of the kind described, the rain fall is apt to be somewhat irregular during-- the crop growing season, making irrigation extremely desirable and in fact absolutely 1 necessary for obtaining the maximum crops.

This need and also the superabundant water supply have long been recognized and I find that there are hundreds of 'idle irri ation ditches in Nebraska and the adjoining tates,

these ditches having been abandoned when their intake ends were clogged with silt. These ditches were moreover only partially successful when new, because receiving the water from the visible river current, they I were de .endent on the level of the water of the visi le river, and'this level is apt to be low at the very times that the irrigation water is .mostlneeded. Whilejthere is 1111-,

. plan.

limited water to supply abundant irrigation the canals. and ditches have been .made 7 worthless, With'my plan, by oing outside the-river or stream, "sinking a asin of sufficient size to supply the water, and'installing a pum toraise the water into the canal or ditch, turn "defeatinto success. Prelimina tests indicate the possibilities of the underflow of the'Platte River at Kearney,

. Nebraska, covering a period of ten 'da s.

During that period a stream of three an a half cubic feet of water per second was pumped through atwelve inch pipe from the subsoilwater of the Platte, this rate of flo'w being sufficient to cover. a thousand acres one foot deep in a hundred and fifty days. This is merely cited as an example of the possibilities of my seepage basins which or example, a test 'was made on the.

of course receive the seepage from :1. ve much larger area'than thatiof a twelve inc e. iiaving thus described my invention in to terms which will be readily understood by others skilled-in the artto which it pertains,

what I claimas new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is Means for utilizing the flowing 'sub- 65 surface water streams 'whichflow through a relatively wide and deep body of 'water bearing sand and gravel, comprising a catch basin adapted to be placed along the side of. a visible stream and separated therefromfio to. receive awatersupply to the catch basin by seepage from the waterbear'ing sand and gravel, a plurality of spaced gravel filled channels disposed between the visible stream and the catch basin .forconducting water byseepage 1 to the catch basin, a gravel lining for said catch basin to prevent ingress of quick sand into the catch basin,- anda power canal communica ting with the catch basin and receiving water therefrom. v

2. In combination. with a subterranean stream-in a-sandand gravel subsoil at the side of a visible stream, a catch basin in the sand and gravel subsoil: for receiv ng a water .75 I

supply by seepage from the vsubterranean stream, said catch basin being substantially parallel to the visible stream and relatively long and relatively narrow an having its downstream end at a level higher '80 than the level of the visible stream at a point adjacent the downstream .end of said catch basin, whereby a: head of wateri's provided at the downstream end. of said catch basin, a gravel lining. for'said catch basin to pre- 85 vent ingress of'quick sand thereinto, gravel filled channels from-the visible stream to said catchbasin, and a canalcommunicating with said catchbasin at its downstream end and receiving water therefrom.

In. testimony whereof I aflix my si' attire.

' JOSEPH .3 NS. 

